The Arkansas Court of Appeals on Wednesday ruled Juvenile Judge Earnest E. Brown Jr., was correct when he dismissed a claim by a juvenile that her attorney was incompetent during a hearing in 2022.
The juvenile, who was identified only as minor child had been picked up in Lincoln County after she had run away from Pope County while wearing an ankle monitor. She had the monitor after being placed on probation for violence against her grandmother.
While in custody in Lincoln County, she was charged with being a delinquent in two felony counts of aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer and one misdemeanor count of impairing the operation of a vital public facility for her conduct in the Lincoln County jail.
The delinquency petition was filed in Lincoln County and she pleaded “true” to the allegation. That same day, she was transferred back to Pope County. The petition claiming ineffective assistance of an attorney was filed 90 days later and Brown dismissed it, ruling he had no jurisdiction since the girl was no longer in Lincoln County.
The judge in Pope County sentenced the girl to the division of youth services and the appeals court said that court agreed to accept the case after transfer, meaning her claim of ineffective assistance of an attorney had to be filed in Pope County, not Lincoln County.
